Sinn Féin - On Your Side

The Dáil Housing and Homeless Committee has today made a
number of ambitious and achievable recommendations to the government that, if
adopted, will make a real impact on the housing crisis.

Speaking today after the launch of the report, Sinn Féin TD
for Dublin Mid-West and spokesperson for Housing Eoin Ó Broin said:

“Sinn Féin proposed the establishment of the Dáil Housing
and Homeless Committee. After eight weeks of work involving over 40 hearings
and 90 written submissions, we have produced a 156 page report containing 23
priority recommendations and over seventy recommendations in total.

“Sinn Féin is satisfied with the report and strongly
commends it to the Minister and to the Dáil.

“The Committee was unanimous in the view that at the
core of this housing crisis is the lack of supply of social and affordable
housing and an over reliance on subsidising private sector units to meet social
housing need.

“In 2015, the Government only delivered 1,991 real social
houses. This year, the Government plans to provide only 3,000 real social
houses. This is not enough and the committee has recognised that.

“One of the key recommendations of the report calls on
the Government to increase the stock of real social housing by 50,000 units
over the next five years. This would require a trebling of the numbers of units
to be provided under current government plans.

“This target requires the Government to commit to a maximum
level of exchequer funding in the capital investment programme and the
mobilisation of funds, on or off balance sheet, from the Housing Finance
Agency, Strategic Investment Fund, Irish League of Credit Unions and others.

“To quicken the pace of the delivery of social housing and
to tackle the lengthy delays that exist due to cumbersome procurement process,
the Committee has recommended that all procurement and tendering needs to
be fast tracked in order to the reduce the average 18 month delivery time
frame. A new Housing Procurement agency would also play a role in driving the
delivery of this new social housing programme.

“The Committee has also made significant recommendation to
keep people in their homes including a moratorium on repossessions;
introduction of rent certainty; increasing rent supplement and housing
assistance payments; and strengthening tenant rights including tenants in
repossessed buy-to-lets.

“While much of the focus of the Committee was on increasing
the supply of social housing and reducing levels of homelessness, there was
also a focus on those people currently experiencing homelessness and acute
housing need.

“The report includes important recommendations on issues
such as Traveller accommodation, families experiencing domestic violence,
families existing Direct Provision, and young people leaving state care and
other institutions.

“The Committee’s recommendations are ambitious, but they are
also necessary to make a real dent in the housing crisis.

“Minister Coveney needs to commit to implementing, at minimum,
the 23 priority recommendations made in this report. However, there are over 70
recommendations which the Committee strongly feels that the Minister should
seriously consider when drafting his Housing Action Plan.

“Minister Coveney has promised to make radical
decisions if necessary to tackle this crisis. He should start by adopting the
recommendations of this Committee into his Action Plan for Housing.”